This invention relates to compositions which provide antistatic effects in fabric laundering operations. More particularly, it relates to providing these antistatic effects while simultaneously cleansing fabrics by means of conventional detergent compositions and detergency builders.
Various quaternary ammonium compounds are known in the art to possess antistatic properties. These quaternary ammonium compounds are known to be incompatible with anionic surfactants commonly employed in laundering compositions. Anionic surfactants attack and inactivate the quaternary ammonium compounds in solution (by forming insoluble salts). It therefore becomes a problem of shielding the quaternary ammonium compounds in the wash water environment, without disturbing their effectiveness at antistatic fabric softening in the subsequent drying process.
Quaternary ammonium compounds are fairly expensive. It has been necessary to add larger amounts of quaternary ammonium compounds to detergents than desired in order to avoid total inactivation in wash solution. Encapsulation of the quaternary ammonium compounds, while preventing inactivation in wash solution, often interferes with the antistatic, fabric-softening effectiveness of the quaternary ammonium compounds in subsequent machine drying. The quaternary ammonium antistatic agents also have a tendency to segregate out in a granular detergent admix because of disparities in particle size.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a particulate additive to laundry detergent compositions to reduce the tendency of fabrics washed with such detergent compositions to generate or retain static electricity when subjected to a subsequent machine drying process.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide detergent compositions incorporating discrete particulates which contain antistat materials capable of reducing the buildup of static charge on fabrics washed with such detergent compositions and subsequently subjected to machine drying.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a detergent composition capable of concurrently laundering, softening, and imparting antistatic benefits to fabrics washed therewith and subsequently machine dried.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide compositions containing certain clay fabric-softening agents and quaternary ammonium antistatic agents which are adapted for use in the washing cycle of a laundering operation.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a particulate antistatic fabric-softening composition which can be included in a conventional detergent composition and will retain its effectiveness in softening fabrics laundered therewith in a subsequent machine drying process.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide for maximum antistatic fabric-softening effectiveness by using a minimum amount of antistatic fabric-softening agent in a detergent composition.
It is even a further object of the present invention to provide for a strong, free-flowing, quaternary ammonium antistatic agent to be incorporated into detergent compositions, which can impart effective antistatic, fabric-softening benefits to fabrics laundered therewith in subsequent machine-drying.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an antistatic, fabric-softening detergent additive which can be directly added to a granular detergent composition.
It is yet an even further object of the present invention to provide an antistatic, fabric-softening detergent additive which will remain homogeneously admixed in a conventional detergent composition.